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Iran Retaliation Strikes Chemical Plant Near Dimona

By Kurt Nimmo | Another Day in the Empire | March 29, 2026

On March 28, Iran’s Foreign Minister, Seyed Abbas Araghchi, condemned Israel’s attack on key Iranian infrastructure, including steel factories, a power plant, and civilian nuclear sites. He described the attacks as a serious escalation and vowed Iran would respond. “Iran will exact a heavy price for Israeli crimes,” he warned.

That heavy price arrived the following day. Israel’s Home Front Command said sirens were sounding in the Negev Desert, Dimona, Be’era, Arad, and Ashkelon. Ne’ot Hovav, formerly Ramat Hovav, an industrial zone (in occupied Al-Naqab) southeast of Be’er Sheva, and the site of Israel’s main hazardous waste disposal facility, was targeted. The Voice of Israel reported ten warheads falling in the Negev, while other sources indicate 27 targets were struck.

The zone is home to 19 chemical factories, including Makhteshim Agan, a pesticide plant, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries (implicated in the opioid crisis), and Israel Chemicals, a bromine plant. It was reported that a disulfide factory was struck. Molybdenum disulfide is an anti-seize lubricant designed to meet the requirements of military specification. It is not known if the disulfide factory in the Negev produced this disulfide variant.

The Negev Phosphates Chemicals Company, part of the ICL Group, is also located in the Rotem Industrial Zone and situated near the Dimona reactor in Mishor Rotem. It is Israel’s sole recognized nuclear fuel cycle facility. Israel extracts uranium from Negev phosphate deposits. The Rotem complex is a critical node within a broader Israeli-US military-industrial network. In addition to phosphates, the facility produces fertilizers and high-purity phosphoric acid.

The phosphate extracted from the Rotem site is exported to several ICL facilities in the United States. ICL is the sole supplier of white phosphorus to the US military, a substance internationally banned for use in munitions. ICL white phosphorus is used by the occupation army in Gaza and Lebanon to burn people, homes, and agricultural lands.

It is important to note that Site 512, near Kmehin west of Dimona on the Har Qeren mountain, is a secretive US War Department ballistic missile early warning facility operated by the United States Army’s 1st Space Brigade.

The AN/TPY-2 Surveillance Transportable Radar, or Forward Based X-band Transportable, a long-range, high altitude digital antenna array surveillance radar, is located at the site. Iran targeted a similar radar facility at the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan, and another radar unit in Qatar. “There are strong indications that a number of other similar systems have been destroyed or damaged, as well,” reports the TWZ Newsletter, a website covering military technology.

Initial information provided by the Israeli Ministry of Environmental Protection indicates there was a leak of dangerous ammonia gas at the Ne’ot Hovav site following the Iranian missile attack. “The situation is rapidly escalating and has reached a dangerous and potentially hazardous level,” reported the Israel Home Front Command, a civil defense operation.

Last week, a spokesperson for Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters warned “all energy, information technology, and desalination infrastructure belonging to the United States and the (Israeli) regime in the region will be targeted” in response to President Trump’s warning (since scaled back) the US would hit Iranian power plants, “starting with the biggest one first.”

On March 27, Araghchi posted to X saying Israel had violated Trump’s momentary pause and attacked two of Iran’s largest steel factories. “Attack contradicts POTUS extended deadline for diplomacy,” he said, and added that “Iran will exact HEAVY price for Israeli crimes.” In addition, Israel targeted a uranium processing facility in the central Iranian city of Yazd. Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization confirmed the strike, but said there were no casualties or radiation leaks, Aljazeera reported.

The March 29 attack is retaliation for the March 27 strike as Iran, Israel, and the United States continue to escalate a conflict that portends tectonic shocks for the global economy.

March 29, 2026 Posted by | Militarism, Wars for Israel | , , , | Comments Off on Iran Retaliation Strikes Chemical Plant Near Dimona

AWACS’ Destruction is a Major Loss for US Military – Ex-DoW Analyst

Sputnik – 29.03.2026

The destruction of a US E-3 Sentry airborne warning and control system (AWACS) aircraft in Saudi Arabia by an Iranian missile strike is a serious blow to the US military, former US Department of War analyst Karen Kwiatkowski tells Sputnik.

The US has a limited number of E-3 aircraft, which are based on aging Boeing 707 airframes, and the next-generation replacement for E-3 is not yet available
The loss of even one of E-3s puts a strain on the remaining aircraft as they are forced to operate longer. It demoralizes the crew, stresses systems, and “increases the consumption rate of surveillance capability and information management”.

Other E-3s now have to prioritize their own defense, which may reduce the radar, surveillance, and command effectiveness they supply.

With many of the important US long-range radars in the region being knocked out by Iranian strikes, the strain put on E-3 aircraft will only get worse, with further losses among them threatening to “narrow and pressure the information space for theater commanders and US and Israeli forces”.

Due to E-3’s distinctive and well-recognized function and appearance, Kwiatkowski adds, its destruction creates concern in the US because it doesn’t look like “winning,” and that claims of Iran losing its fighting capability were premature.

“One month into a ‘well planned 4 day operation’ is revealing many predictable operational and logistical crises, as well as a noticeable reduction in the tactical and operational choices for US and also Israeli theater commanders,” she says.

March 29, 2026 Posted by | Militarism, Wars for Israel | , , | Comments Off on AWACS’ Destruction is a Major Loss for US Military – Ex-DoW Analyst

Israel’s Iran Strategy Uses US Military & Gulf States as Its Pawns

By Robert Inlakesh | Palestine Chronicle | March 29, 2026

While most honest analysts will conclude that the decision made by the White House came as a result of pressure from the Israelis or that this is a war that is being fought for Tel Aviv’s interests, many fail to see any clear strategy at play.

In order to understand the strategy behind the US-Israeli assault on the Islamic Republic, you must first remove the notion that the United States is in the driving seat to any significant extent.

Almost immediately after the 12-Day War in June of 2025, the Israeli leadership was already preparing for the next round. On July 7, Axios News even reported that officials in Tel Aviv believed that US President Trump would give them another green light to attack.

Meanwhile, the most influential Zionist think tanks in Washington DC, the likes of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP) and the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), were openly discussing the necessity of a new round of confrontations.

These think tanks facilitated discussions and published pieces in which they made it clear that while the next round was inevitable, it had to be the last round, and that the US’s involvement would be important in deciding outcomes.

Understanding the Israeli Strategy

It is no coincidence that senior Israeli officials, all the way from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to opposition leader Yair Lapid, have all recently publicly endorsed the “Greater Israel Project”.

This is not simply posturing, this is their goal. But how does this fit into the Iran war? Well, it will begin to make sense when the context is all provided.

Firstly, the Greater Israel Project’s strategy is grounded in an academic article published by a former Israeli intelligence officer and journalist, Oded Yinon. The plan did not advocate for the physical expansion of the Israeli State’s borders over every nation between the Euphrates River and the River Nile, but instead opted for an approach that would transform Israel into a regional empire.

In order to achieve this goal of a “Greater Israel”, it would first necessitate the collapse of all the region’s sovereign States, which would instead be broken up into warring sectarian and ethno-regimes.

The purpose of achieving the disintegration of the surrounding nations is a simple concept to understand. If they are all divided, economically weak, and lack the military capabilities to stand up to Israel, it makes it easy for the Israelis to control them.

Take, for example, the Kurdish Regional Government in northern Iraq, or the semi-autonomous zone in southern Syria’s Sweida Province, now carved out by Israeli-backed separatists.

Syria and Iraq are perfect examples of what happens when a nation is torn apart and sectarianism, or ethno-supremacist ideologies, are spread through deliberate propaganda campaigns.

Although Secular Arab Nationalism failed in the region, the chief proponent of it, former Egyptian President Gamal Abdul Nasser, was indeed correct in his analysis as to why it was a net positive for the region.

A united Arab World would undoubtedly be far stronger than the simple modern nation-states of the region, whose borders were drawn up by European colonial powers.

For the Israelis, they had always sought to impose this long-term solution upon West Asia, of a “Greater Israel”, but were previously seeking to do it in a slow and methodical way, opposed to a ruthlessly violent one.

Part of this way of thinking was centered around the idea that Israel maintained a “deterrence capacity”, meaning that their military power was capable of deterring any significant strategic threat from rising against it.

On October 7, 2023, the Qassam Brigades of Hamas crippled this strategy and debunked the notion of their “deterrence capacity”. A few thousand Palestinian fighters managed to overcome the most militarily advanced army in the region, bursting through the gates of their concentration camp, despite the world’s most advanced surveillance systems being present in the area.

The Palestinian groups themselves appear to have been genuinely surprised by how easily they were capable of achieving their goals. Not only did they inflict a blow on the Israeli military and seize captives, but they also managed to collapse the entire Israeli southern command, all with light weapons.

To Israel, the message was clear: The Arab populations of Jordan and Egypt had taken to the streets, some even pouring across the Jordanian border. The weakest link in the Iranian-led Axis of Resistance had dealt the Israeli military its most embarrassing defeat. Deterrence was dead, and former Secretary General of Hezbollah, Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah, was proven correct: “Israel is weaker than a spider’s web”.

The decision to commit genocide was therefore ordered. Israel believed it had to show the Arab World what it was truly capable of, as a means of asserting its control. In the cases of the Arab populations in Jordan, Egypt, and even the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem, the fear tactics appeared to have worked. Then they made an irreversible mistake.

In September 2024, they assassinated Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah, a move that completely changed the thinking of Iran and its allies. Now, the message had been received loud and clear; preparations for the last war had to be made. Up until then, the Axis of Resistance had been attempting to close the chapter of the Gaza genocide; now, they understood that destroying Gaza wasn’t the end goal of Israel.

Israel had decided it would accelerate its national project of gradual expansion, meaning that the Islamic Republic of Iran had to be deposed. A failure to overthrow the Iranian government would represent an existential threat to this project.

Israel’s Iran War Strategy

As I have been writing in the Palestine Chronicle for the past eight months, the only viable strategy that the Israelis could hope to use, in order to see any gains, is one where Iran’s civilian infrastructure is the primary target.

That means: taking out power stations, desalination plants along with other key water facilities – less than 3% of Iran’s water needs come from desalination – while blowing up oil and gas facilities, bombing factories, destroying agricultural lands, inflicting costly environmental catastrophes, and attempting to cripple the Iranian State’s ability to function. In other words, a policy that replicates the Gaza model on a much wider scale, impacting a nation of 92 million people.

Tel Aviv’s goal here is a long-term regime change operation, one that will happen gradually following the war itself. Israel knows that destroying Iran’s military capabilities was never going to be possible. Yes, they may have some successes, but totally crippling their missile and drone programs through strikes alone won’t work.

Therefore, they seek to try and force Tehran to expend a large portion of its missile arsenal, making it more difficult for them to start a new war in the near future following the conflict’s conclusion.

If you look at Syria, for example, the government of Bashar al-Assad did not collapse during the war. Instead, the Syrian State slowly eroded from the inside, due to its isolation and the US-EU’s maximum pressure sanctions.

In the end, the Syrian State was largely bought out and was so corrupt that there was little left. When Ahmed al-Shara’a marched into Aleppo and then Damascus, he did so without any fight, although there were some exceptions where a few units resisted.

Now, Damascus is open for Israeli citizens, the leadership in Syria meets with Israeli officials face-to-face, and has even set up a joint normalizing mechanism between both sides. Therefore, using the long game strategy against Iran makes the most sense in Israel’s strategic thinking.

Then there comes the convenient side effect of the strategy, which begins to explain how the US leadership is not in the driver’s seat at all. That being the weakening of the Persian Gulf Arab nations.

Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia are experiencing untold economic devastation as a result of this war. The reason for this, evidently, is that they all host US bases and have permitted a large presence of American military and intelligence personnel inside their countries.

Oman, and to a lesser extent Qatar, have been the only Gulf nations that appear to be pushing back against the true culprits in this war, the Israelis and US. Muscat in particular has blasted the “security arrangements” in the region and condemned normalising efforts with Tel Aviv, pointing their fingers in the right direction.

Bahrain and especially the UAE have gone in the opposite direction. They are only increasing their pro-Israeli and anti-Iran rhetoric, which comes as little surprise given that both have normalized relations with the Zionists. Riyadh, on the other hand, appears to be on a separate trajectory, with its rhetoric being diplomatic, while its actions suggest it is hostile towards Iran.

The Israelis, despite their efforts to normalize ties with the Gulf States, do not want strong nations to exist anywhere in West Asia under their accelerationist approach to achieving an Israel Empire. This appears to be something that the leadership in Abu Dhabi and Manama have not proven intelligent enough to figure out.

That is why the Israeli leadership had started to announce their next targets, following Iran, were the leaderships in Turkiye and even Pakistan. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is not a threat in the way that Iran is, but he does command one of the most powerful military forces in the region and rules over a developing economy, working towards transforming itself into a key global trade hub.

Alone, the idea that Turkiye would begin to build an economic or defence alliance with Saudi Arabia, Pakistan or Egypt, poses a direct threat to the Greater Israel Project. In Syria, we see a similar thing; although Ankara does not present a clear and present military challenge to the Israelis as a result of its influence in Damascus, it acts as a potential competitor, a nation that may seek to curtail Israeli expansionist plots.

The GCC countries, which are in alliance with one another, maintain immense economic power. As we see today, if the Strait of Hormuz is disrupted, the entire world is impacted. Back in 1973, these Persian Gulf Arab States exercised that power temporarily. One thing to keep in mind with the Israelis is that they never forget history and are infamous for holding grudges.

So, the dismantlement of the Gulf Arab nations’ economies, or at the very least, the weakening of these countries, is viewed as a positive development in Tel Aviv. As for the US, this war is similarly disastrous, but Israel fails to care less.

This war has destroyed US power projection, making it open to its top chosen adversaries – Russia and China – in a number of other arenas. Donald Trump personally has business ties in the Gulf, which don’t benefit from this conflict, so even on a personal level, it isn’t exactly a victory. The entire Western World, allying itself with the US and Israel, is suffering economically, and as a result, this will mean social unrest is possible, even if it takes time to come to fruition.

An embarrassment has already been dealt to the US military, which is being made to look like a paper tiger, as Mao Zedong once called it. Its future in the Gulf region may have just been ruined, along with those billions, or trillions as Trump believes, of investments – from Gulf States – may no longer materialize. The entire White House Security Doctrine, published last year, has been torn up and set on fire.

In terms of soldier casualties, the Trump administration is evidently hiding the true figure, but it goes without saying that this isn’t good news. NATO has been forced to flee Iraq. The US has even lifted sanctions on Moscow and a limited number of sanctions on Iranian oil. There is simply nothing that the US stands to gain from this war, even if it were to somehow pull off a victory; at this point, it would prove pyrrhic.

With all of this being said, what the Israelis are doing is making a massive gamble. A series of risks that appear so far to be backfiring, as Tehran appears to have pre-empted the conspiracies set against it. The final results of the war are not yet in, but the odds appear to be on the side of Iran.

– Robert Inlakesh is a journalist, writer, and documentary filmmaker. He focuses on the Middle East, specializing in Palestine. He contributed this article to The Palestine Chronicle.

March 29, 2026 Posted by | Economics, Wars for Israel | , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Israel’s Iran Strategy Uses US Military & Gulf States as Its Pawns

Iran: Trump wanted regime change, now just begging for Hormuz to open

Al Mayadeen | March 29, 2026

Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said on Sunday, marking the 30th day of Iranian national defense against the US-Israeli aggression, that the US president’s objectives have dramatically shifted since the start of the war on Iran.

“The enemy who claimed to have destroyed our air, naval, and missile forces, and had a plan for the collapse of the Islamic Republic, has now set his goal on reopening the Strait of Hormuz,” Ghalibaf said.

“Reopening a strait that was open before the war has become Trump’s operational dream,” he said mockingly.

Ghalibaf stated that the war on Iran, which has come to be known as the Ramadan War, is now at its most critical moment. He noted that Trump is unable to secure the support of European countries, that energy markets are out of control, and that food inflation is approaching.

The war bites the belligerent

The Parliament Speaker detailed the damage inflicted on US military assets throughout the conflict. “The manifestations of American arrogance, from the F-35 to the aircraft carrier and US regional bases, have suffered major blows,” he said. “Strikes on the Israeli regime have been effective, precise, and foundation-shaking.”

Ghalibaf also highlighted the growing strength of the Resistance Axis across the region.

“Hezbollah in Lebanon, which was constantly threatened with disarmament, is today an important and effective part of the Resistance and has trapped the malignant Israeli regime,” he said.

“The Resistance in Iraq is fighting heroically and has astonished the enemy. Ansarallah in Yemen has breathed new life into the Resistance front and is ready to achieve spectacular surprises.”

“This is the honor and greatness of the Resistance front against the world’s arrogant powers,” Ghalibaf stated. “Trump has been accused worldwide of waging a pointless war and has no answer for his public opinion. The evil of initiating the war has returned to its initiator.”

Here is a background section summarizing the current situation with the Strait of Hormuz, based on the Al Mayadeen article:

The battle for the Strait of Hormuz

Since the US-Israeli war on Iran began on February 28, the Strait of Hormuz, through which approximately one-fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas shipments pass, has become a central front in the war on Iran. Iranian authorities have restricted the movement of vessels linked to the US and “Israel” or those supporting, requiring ships to obtain approval before transiting the strategic waterway.

Tehran has made clear that “nonhostile” ships may pass safely if authorized, while the strait remains “closed only to enemies carrying out cowardly aggression against Iran,” as Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi put it. The Islamic Revolution Guard Corps has turned back multiple container ships attempting to transit without authorization.

Iran’s Parliament is now advancing legislation to impose formal tolls on vessels passing through the strait, a move lawmakers say is designed to assert Tehran’s “sovereignty, control and oversight” over the passage, much like the model applied by Turkey in the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits. The toll system would build on temporary fees applied since late February.

US President Donald Trump has threatened an escalation in the aggression against Iran’s power infrastructure if the strait remains closed, while US attempts to organize international naval escorts to bypass Iran’s control over the strait have so far failed.

The new framework signals Tehran’s intent to use its control over its waterway to regulate access systematically, rather than relying on ad hoc measures, while simultaneously sending a message to the US and “Israel” about the country’s ability to control this key energy corridor.

March 29, 2026 Posted by | Economics, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Militarism, Wars for Israel | , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Iran: Trump wanted regime change, now just begging for Hormuz to open

IRGC: Israeli, US universities in region legitimate targets after strikes on Iranian university

Al-mayadeen | March 29, 2026

The Iranian Revolution Guard condemned the bombing of the Tehran University of Science and Technology by American and Israeli forces, emphasizing that such attacks on universities and research centers will not go unanswered.

The IRGC warned that all universities in the Israeli entity, as well as American universities across West Asia, are now considered legitimate targets, following a principle of destroying two institutions for every Iranian university attacked.

“The misguided rulers of the White House should know that from now on, all universities of the occupying Israeli entity, as well as American universities in West Asia, are legitimate targets for us,” the statement said.

The statement issued a warning to all staff, professors, students, and nearby residents to maintain a safe distance of at least one kilometer from American universities in the region.

The Guard added that if the US government wants to ensure that its universities in the region are limited to only the two corresponding targets in this phase, it must issue an official statement by 12:00 PM on Monday, March 30 (Tehran time), condemning the bombing of the universities.

Failure to prevent future attacks by US forces or their allies will leave these institutions exposed to further military action, the statement added.

Baghaei condemns US-Israeli strikes on Iran’s universities

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei on Saturday denounced deliberate US-Israeli attacks targeting Iran’s scientific and cultural foundations, accusing the aggressors of waging a systematic assault on the country’s civilian infrastructure under fabricated pretexts.

In a statement posted on X, Baghaei said that “Isfahan University of Technology and the Iran University of Science and Technology are just two among many universities and research centers deliberately attacked by the aggressors during the past 30 days of their illegal war on the Iranian nation.

His remarks come amid a sustained US-Israeli unprovoked aggression that has inflicted heavy civilian losses and widespread destruction across Iran, including repeated strikes on educational and academic institutions. Earlier today, a strike hit a building on the campus of Isfahan University of Technology, causing material damage to university facilities, while in recent days, a satellite research center affiliated with the Iran University of Science and Technology in Tehran was also targeted, with the blast damaging surrounding structures.

The most devastating incident occurred on February 28, when missiles struck the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls’ school in Minab, killing more than 170 people, the majority of them schoolchildren, in what has become one of the deadliest attacks of the war.

The strike, which hit the school during class hours, drew condemnation from international organizations, with UN agencies warning that attacks on educational facilities constitute serious violations of international humanitarian law.

Beyond Minab, multiple reports confirm that schools in several cities, including Tehran and Parand, have been struck or damaged since the beginning of the war, pointing to a broader pattern of attacks affecting Iran’s educational sector.

March 29, 2026 Posted by | War Crimes, Wars for Israel | , , , | Comments Off on IRGC: Israeli, US universities in region legitimate targets after strikes on Iranian university

Trump admits Iran hit USS Ford carrier: ‘We ran for our lives’

Al Mayadeen | March 28, 2026

US President Donald Trump revealed that Iranian forces carried out a coordinated assault on the USS Gerald R. Ford, stating that the world’s largest aircraft carrier came under a multi-directional attack in the Red Sea as Tehran intensifies its retaliation against the US-Israeli aggression launched on February 28.

Speaking at a Saudi investment forum in Miami on Friday, Trump described what unfolded as “a serious situation” for US naval forces, indicating that the scale and intensity of the operation rapidly overwhelmed expectations.

“It was one o’clock in the morning,” Trump said, recalling the moment the vessel came under attack “from 17 different angles.”

“We knew we were in trouble,” he added.

“They were here, they were there. We ran for our lives, it was over,” Trump said, relaying the account of a Navy commander who was aboard at the time.

Carrier forced to withdraw

The USS Gerald R. Ford, the centerpiece of US naval power projection, had been deployed to West Asia as part of Washington’s aggression against Iran. In the immediate aftermath of the reported confrontation, the carrier was forced out of the theater following a fire that erupted onboard on March 12, injuring crew members and leaving nearly 200 sailors affected by smoke inhalation, while damaging large sections of the vessel.

The warship withdrew first to the Greek island of Crete before docking in Croatia for urgent repairs, after nearly nine months of continuous deployment marked by mounting technical failures, including persistent system malfunctions that had already raised concerns about its operational reliability under sustained pressure.

Despite the sequence of events, the Pentagon insisted that the damage stemmed from a “non-combat-related” fire in a laundry area, attempting to frame the withdrawal as a routine technical issue rather than the result of battlefield impact.

Iran exposes vulnerability

Iranian officials have categorically rejected this narrative, arguing that it is a transparent attempt to obscure the consequences of Iran’s retaliatory operations, which have increasingly exposed the vulnerability of even the most advanced US military assets.

The Islamic Revolution Guard Corps ridiculed the US account, stating, “What kind of military giant is this that faces a crisis and is forced to leave the battlefield due to a fire occurring in its laundry room?”

Tehran has repeatedly warned that US aircraft carriers operating in regional waters would be treated as legitimate targets, stressing that their presence constitutes a direct threat to Iran’s sovereignty.

Within this context, Iranian officials and analysts view the carrier’s abrupt withdrawal as clear evidence that sustained missile and drone operations are imposing real constraints on US forces, undermining Washington’s ability to maintain control despite its overwhelming technological advantage.

Iran’s armed forces have also reported conducting successful drone and missile strikes against another US carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln, reinforcing what Tehran presents as an expanding and effective deterrence posture capable of reshaping the military balance across the region.

March 28, 2026 Posted by | Deception, Militarism, Wars for Israel | , , | Comments Off on Trump admits Iran hit USS Ford carrier: ‘We ran for our lives’

Seizing the Kharg: Washington’s path to defeat in the Persian Gulf

By Anis Raiss | The Cradle | March 27, 2026

Four weeks of US-Israeli war on Iran – and the stakes have climbed far higher than Washington anticipated. US President Donald Trump threatened on Truth Social to “hit and obliterate” Iran’s power plants if the Strait of Hormuz was not reopened within 48 hours.

The deadline passed. He blinked and, for the second time, postponed his own ultimatum, recasting it as ‘productive conversations.’ Tehran denied any talks and insisted the reversal was driven by “fear of Iran’s response.”

The US-Israeli air campaign was supposed to break Iran. It didn’t. Now the hawks are pushing for boots on the ground. But the ground war being floated does not simply risk American lives on an island 15 miles (around 24 kilometers) off Iran’s coast. It threatens the entire US military architecture in the Persian Gulf – the bases, the alliances, and the energy infrastructure that has underwritten American dominance in West Asia for decades.

In an interview with NBC News, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, in response to a question about a possible ground invasion by the US, delivered words the Pentagon had no answer for: “We are waiting for them,” which became a meme in the process. The bluff has been called. The question now is whether showing Washington’s hand collapses the entire table.

Raising the stakes with an empty hand

The ground invasion discourse is no longer hypothetical. Pentagon officials have submitted detailed preparation requests for deploying ground forces. Three Marine amphibious assault groups are converging on the Persian Gulf: the USS Tripoli carrying the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit from Japan, the USS Boxer with the 11th MEU from California, and roughly 1,500 paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg.

By the time all units arrive, between 6,000 and 8,000 US ground troops will be within striking distance of Iran. But the composition of these forces exposes the gap between rhetoric and reality. Military analyst Ruben Stewart noted that what is being deployed is “consistent with discrete, time-limited operations, not a sustained ground campaign.”

At the same time, Israel’s own military is showing signs of strain. Chief of staff Eyal Zamir warned on 25 March that the army is “going to collapse in on itself,” citing an eroding reserve force and a deepening manpower crisis as wars stretch from Gaza to Lebanon and now Iran.

Washington is pushing more chips to the center of the table – but the hand behind them remains weak. The scenarios now circulating form an escalation ladder where each rung risks pulling the US deeper into a fight it is structurally unprepared to sustain.

Pickaxe Mountain and the raid that takes too long 

The most politically attractive option is a covert raid on Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile – believed to be around 400 kilograms enriched to roughly 60 percent, possibly stored near Isfahan or deep inside Pickaxe Mountain.

But the problem is one Sun Tzu identified centuries ago: speed is the essence of war – yet this mission demands the opposite. Extracting nuclear material requires troops to remain on-site long enough for Iranian forces to respond.

Former CENTCOM commander General Joseph Votel described such operations as “feasible,” but issued a clear warning: “You’re going to have to take care of them, resupply them, medevac them. And that requires a logistical tail, and at some point that tail has to be protected as well.”

Washington still carries the scar of Operation Eagle Claw – the failed 1980 hostage rescue that collapsed in the Iranian desert and helped end Jimmy Carter’s presidency.

Kharg Island: The trap disguised as a shortcut

If covert raids carry too much risk for too little certainty, the next option on the table is a limited territorial seizure – and Washington’s hawks have converged on a single target: Kharg Island.

An eight-square-mile (around 20.7 square kilometers) coral outcrop in the northern Persian Gulf, Kharg processes roughly 90 percent of Iran’s crude exports. US Senator Lindsey Graham urged Trump to “take Kharg Island,” while retired Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg described himself as a “big believer in boots on the ground” there.

The logic sounds surgical: seize Iran’s economic lifeline and force Tehran to the table. But it collapses under even basic scrutiny. Kharg sits just 15 miles (around 24 kilometers) off the Iranian mainland – well within range of coastal missile batteries, drones, rockets, and artillery. Any US force stationed there would face “near-constant bombardment.”

Retired Rear Admiral Mark Montgomery put it bluntly: “If we seize Kharg Island, they’re going to turn off the spigot on the other end. It’s not like we control their oil production.”

Sun Tzu warned that there is no instance of a nation benefiting from prolonged warfare. Modern analyses reach the same conclusion. Think tank assessments warn that Kharg is a textbook case of mission creep, pulling US forces step by step toward a wider ground war.

The war Iran has prepared for

What Washington’s hawks consistently overlook is that Iran has spent decades preparing for precisely this scenario – not to match US firepower, but to make any ground war prohibitively costly.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is divided into 31 autonomous ground divisions, each capable of operating independently if central command is disrupted.

When strikes killed the Islamic Republic’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei, intelligence minister Esmail Khatib, and Basij chief Gholamreza Soleimani, the military apparatus continued launching missiles, closing the Strait of Hormuz, and fighting. A command structure designed to survive decapitation appears to be doing exactly that.

At sea, Iran’s naval doctrine relies on asymmetric warfare. Its reported arsenal: hundreds of fast attack craft, coastal missile batteries, an estimated 5,000 naval mines, over 1,000 unmanned suicide vessels, and Ghadir-class midget submarines built for the Gulf’s shallow waters. The Persian Gulf is not an open ocean. It is a corridor shaped by geography and fortified by doctrine – designed to swallow conventional naval power.

On land, the scale alone is decisive. Iran is four times the size of Iraq, with a population exceeding 90 million. Estimates suggest that any conventional invasion would require “hundreds of thousands of troops.”

Then there is the Basij paramilitary network, reportedly capable of mobilizing up to a million reservists – and the IRGC’s decades of experience coordinating asymmetric resistance across the region.

The US currently has fewer than 8,000 moving into position. This is not a war Iran needs to win – but one that is designed to make Washington unable to sustain.

Winning Kharg, losing the Gulf

Even if Washington succeeds tactically – seizing Kharg and declaring victory – the strategic consequences are immediate.

Since the war began, Iran has already demonstrated its escalation capacity. Missiles and drones have targeted US-linked infrastructure across Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, the UAE, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. Energy facilities, airports, and desalination plants have all come under fire.

A seizure of Kharg would likely trigger a far broader response. Iranian officials have explicitly warned of “continuous and relentless attacks” on regional infrastructure if Iranian territory is occupied.

Tehran has also signaled it could expand the conflict to the Bab al-Mandab Strait through allied Ansarallah-aligned forces in Yemen, threatening a second global chokepoint.

Every US position in the Gulf depends on supply lines that run through the very states already under threat. Bahrain hosts the Fifth Fleet. The UAE hosts Al-Dhafra. Kuwait functions as a logistical hub.

As the Stimson Center noted, Gulf states already fear Trump could declare victory and leave them fighting Iran alone.

March 28, 2026 Posted by | Illegal Occupation, Militarism, Wars for Israel | , , , , | Comments Off on Seizing the Kharg: Washington’s path to defeat in the Persian Gulf

Iran reports 500 US casualties in strikes on covert US military sites

Al Mayadeen | March 28, 2026

Iran’s Armed Forces announced on Saturday that they inflicted heavy casualty losses on US military personnel after striking two covert sites used to shelter US troops, both in Dubai.

The spokesperson for Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, Lieutenant Colonel Ebrahim Zolfaghari, stated that the strikes resulted in casualties affecting more than 500 US soldiers and officers, with approximately 400 at the first site and over 100 at the second.

He confirmed ambulances were seen transporting the dead and wounded for hours following the operations.

Tehran issued a warning to US President Donald Trump and US military commanders in the wake of the strikes, declaring that the region had become “a graveyard for their soldiers” and that the United States has no option but to yield to Iran’s will or face inevitable consequences.

Dubai, al-Kharj targeted in coordinated strike

Zolfaghari also announced in a separate statement that the two secret locations were identified and struck using a combination of missiles and drones in precise operations.

He added that an IRGC strike on the US troop deployment site at Al-Kharj base in Saudi Arabia on Friday destroyed one refueling aircraft and severely damaged three others, rendering all four completely inoperable.

At the same time as the Dubai strikes, Zolfaghari revealed that a warehouse storing Ukrainian anti-drone systems, present in Dubai to support the US military, was also destroyed in a combined operation carried out by the IRGC’s aerospace and naval forces.

21 Ukrainian personnel were reported to have been at the site at the time of the strike. “There is no confirmed information regarding the fate of the Ukrainian personnel present at the site, who are likely to have been killed,” Zolfaghari said.

March 28, 2026 Posted by | Militarism, Wars for Israel | , , , , | Comments Off on Iran reports 500 US casualties in strikes on covert US military sites

Organized terrorism: Iran condemns killing of its diplomats in Lebanon

Al Mayadeen | March 27, 2026

The Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs strongly condemned on Friday the killing of several Iranian diplomats in Lebanon, holding the Israeli occupation fully responsible for the “heinous crime” targeting their place of residence.

The Ministry stated that the incident forms part of an “aggressive policy” pursued by “Israel” against the Iranian people, adding that it constitutes a flagrant violation of international legal and humanitarian norms, particularly the principle of diplomatic immunity and the obligation to respect the sovereignty of states.

‘Organized terrorism’

In this context, the Foreign Ministry stressed that the killing of diplomats constitutes a clear example of “organized terrorism” and a direct breach of international law, affirming Iran’s determination to pursue all available legal and international channels to hold those responsible accountable.

The Ministry also extended condolences to the families of the martyrs and to the Iranian people, reaffirming its commitment to continue their path in safeguarding Iran’s security and national interests.

It identified the martyrs as: Sayyed Mohammad Reza Mousavi, Alireza Bi-Azar, Majid Hosseini Kandsar, Hossein Ahmadlou, Ahmad Rasouli, and Amir Moradi.

Iran urges UN to condemn US-Israeli assassination plots

Earlier today, Iran formally called on the United Nations Security Council to condemn active US-Israeli plans to assassinate senior Iranian officials, including Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Sayyed Abbas Araghchi. The US and “Israel” have been on an assassination spree that has now claimed the lives of Iran’s Leader and dozens of other officials since the start of the US-Israeli aggression on Iran on February 28.

In a letter addressed to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the President of the Security Council on Thursday, Iran’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative Amir Saeid Iravani warned that media reports had exposed an operational framework explicitly targeting Iran’s highest political figures. The alleged suspension of those plans, Iravani stressed, offered no reassurance, as its “conditional nature” confirms that “the threat remains real, deliberate, and ongoing.”

The ambassador condemned the practice as a product of “criminal mindsets” that have publicly dismissed the rules of engagement as “foolish”, the same forces, he wrote, that have bombed students, targeted hospitals, and destroyed cultural heritage sites in an open campaign of state terrorism.

The promotion of the term “kill lists”, the letter stated, is “another manifestation of the same terrorist acts” that initiated a criminal war and have so far led to the martyrdom of more than 3,000 civilians.

Iravani further invoked the protections afforded to officials at the level of foreign minister under customary international law, protections repeatedly affirmed by the International Court of Justice, warning that any attack on their lives “would undermine the foundations of peaceful international relations.”

A record built on killing

By documented count, the Israeli entity has conducted approximately 2,300 assassination operations since 1948, a record that dwarfs any other state in the Western world and one so institutionalized that the occupation entity was likely the first government to formally acknowledge a policy of assassination, which they dub “targeted killing”, as far back as 2000.

Since the onset of the genocide in Gaza, the killing machine accelerated dramatically, targeting dozens of senior officials in the Palestinian and Lebanese Resistance, and ultimately the Iranian Leader himself, martyred in a joint US-Israeli operation on February 28, 2026.

The campaign has never been confined by borders. Operations in Dubai, Tehran, Beirut, Damascus, and European capitals have established, as a matter of practice, that the occupation recognizes no other country’s territorial sovereignty.

March 27, 2026 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes, Wars for Israel | , , , | Comments Off on Organized terrorism: Iran condemns killing of its diplomats in Lebanon

Why could Gaza enter the regional war?

By Robert Inlakesh | Al Mayadeen | March 27, 2026

As the Israeli-US war on the Islamic Republic of Iran continues, so too does its seemingly never-ending assault on the people of Gaza. Which may end up resulting in one of the most extreme forms of blowback that the Zionist regime has ever faced.

The so-called Gaza ceasefire agreement that came into effect on October 10, 2025, has proven to be precisely the opposite of a cessation of hostilities. Instead, just like with the way in which the Israelis dealt with the Lebanon ceasefire, they decided that the deal only applies to one side and that because they have the military edge, they can simply bomb wherever at will.

In the case of the Lebanese ceasefire, over 15,400 total violations were tallied by the time that Hezbollah chose to respond. Gaza’s official violation count is steadily on the way to the 3,000 mark, with the Zionist entity having murdered around 700 people during the “ceasefire” period.

Just as this strategy of arrogance backfired with Hezbollah, of believing that they can simply assert dominance and commit atrocities whenever they choose without any response, so too is it likely to blow up in their faces with the Palestinian Resistance in Gaza. In fact, it was this kind of mentality and arrogance that led to the humiliating defeat of their southern command on October 7, 2023.

Gaza had already been declared unlivable by 2020, as per calculations provided by United Nations experts, with a water supply that was 97% unfit for human consumption, one of the highest unemployment rates on earth, and who could forget the frequent series of massacres visited on the population there? Now, the situation on the ground is beyond comprehension.

Month after month, the sadistic Zionist administration of US President Donald Trump toyed with the Palestinian civilian population by claiming that a “Phase 2” to the ceasefire agreement was within reach. This evidently never materialised, the people were left in around 40% of the Gaza Strip with little shelter and supplies, living amongst the sewage and bombed out buildings surrounding them.

Meanwhile, the five Israeli created ISIS-linked collaborator gangs in Gaza, composed of Wahhabis and common criminals, have been granted round the clock protection and limitless supplies in order to further the goals of destroying the Palestinian people.

The “International Community?” and “International Legal System?” Nowhere to be seen, or totally ineffective where any efforts are made. The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) even passed resolution 2803, birthing Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace” (BoP) last November. All the Arab regimes came grovelling at the US President’s feet, as they congratulated the resolution that burned down decades of international law and precedents.

In the end, what was the BoP? Well, its charter didn’t mention Gaza, or even Palestine, once. It was instead an attempt to create a UN replacement, filled with the most repellent of spineless creatures, like Tony Blair, and billionaire friends of the US President.

Under the current conditions being faced by the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, with their civilians who are continuing to be murdered, kidnapped and injured, there will eventually come a time that the opportunity will present itself for the Palestinian national resistance to take action.

If the Israeli military continues to commit to its ground offensive inside Lebanon, forcing it to get bogged down, while the Iranian missile and drone waves continue to take out strategic targets, there may be an opportunity for the Palestinians to finally take matters into their own hands.

It is not likely that any major moves will be made at this stage of the regional war, yet if this reaches a phase where the Israeli military is being severely battered and it no longer possesses many capabilities it entered the war with, it may be in for dealing with the final flood. The Al-Aqsa Flood operation proved what happens when the Zionist entity refuses to compromise and allow the people of Gaza to breathe.

As long as the Israelis refuse to admit defeat in this war, things will certainly continue to get worse and worse for them as the months go on. The reason for this is simple, they are so hell bent on conquering more territory and spilling the blood of the region’s peoples, that there is only one solution available, to force them to face a total strategic military defeat.

Although these are all broadly considered to be low likelihood possibilities, their regional aggression could easily trigger various fronts in ways that may spin out of control. Take for example the occupied West Bank and Al-Quds, although they have so far refrained from standing up for themselves in any large-scale uprising, if they were to simply revolt, they would cause an earthquake for the Israeli military and society at large.

The Israelis know well the potential consequences of a West Bank uprising, but instead of taking measures to minimize this possibility, they choose to increase the pressure on the population there. Since October 7, 2023, they have indeed fallen silent – with the exception of the Resistance groups primarily situated in the north’s refugee camps – but in no way is it certain they will continue to take this kind of punishment.

Even the way the Zionist entity handles its predicament inside Syria, it uses nothing but brute force and refuses to behave in a strategic manner. It may be an unlikely scenario, seeing that the current President of Syria is only one step away from a normalization agreement, yet how could the Israeli military deal with being roped into a quagmire inside Syrian territory, where an abundance of groups could end up attacking them?

Which brings us back to the question of Gaza. Considering that the opportunity presents itself, the Resistance could certainly act down the line in this conflict. If it does happen, it will be out of necessity and because the Zionist entity refused to end its genocide. In anticipation of any such action, it should be noted on record that it will be entirely the fault of the Israelis and the regime in Washington.

March 27, 2026 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Wars for Israel | , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Why could Gaza enter the regional war?

The coming military and psychological unravelling?

Ashes of Pompeii | March 27, 2026

In the late 1960’s, America stood at the zenith of its postwar power. Its economy dominated, its military seemed unstoppable, and its confidence was unshakable. The war in Vietnam was going swimmingly, MacNamara’s body counts were the proof of it. Then came Tet.

January 30th, 1968, Tet, the Vietnamese lunar new year. On that day and the next North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces launched coordinated attacks on over 100 cities, and hundreds more rural sites, across South Vietnam. It was not merely a surprise attack, but a fundamental inflection point. The Viet Cong struck everywhere at once, proving they were not a ragtag insurgency, peasants in sandals, but a coordinated, disciplined force with sophisticated low-tech commincation and coordination networks. They eventually lost the battles, yes, but they shattered the myth of American invincibility. The psychological blow was irreversible. Public trust collapsed. The war wasn’t lost on the battlefield that week; it was lost first on the 6 o’oclock news, and then in the American mind.

That is the lesson we miss when we reduce Tet to just a “surprise.” It was the moment the trajectory of American power bent. Not because the U.S. stopped winning battles, but because the world, and Americans themselves, realized victory was not just a question of firepower, and was not inevitable.

Today, we seem to be approaching a similar inflection point in the Gulf. Not a repeat of 1968, but a parallel unraveling. American power projection, naval dominance, air superiority, deterrence credibility, is being tested in real time. The contemplated land operations, Kharg Island, Hormuz, wherever, carry the same hubris that marked early Vietnam: assumptions in the Trump administration of quick success, underestimation of adversary resolve, and overreliance on technology against an enemy that thrives in ambiguity and asymetric warfare.

The difference now is the psychological context. In 1968, many Americans doubted the war’s morality, but no one doubted their nation’s raw power. Today, social media and fragmented news mean more people see the cracks: stalled initiatives, diplomatic friction, asymmetric losses. Yet for many leaders, and for the archetype of the “average American” still shaped by post-Cold War triumphalism, the idea of a swift, visible military debacle remains unthinkable. Despite Vietnam. Despite Iraq and Afghanistan. Despite the American helicoptors in Iran in 1979 or “Black Hawk Down”.

The new Tet moment has not yet arrived. In the American mind, all of the above failures were somehow due to individual failures, lack of resolve or coordination, the hippies, Carter or Biden’s weakness, …

It hasn’t arrived yet, but all indications are that the next Tet is approaching very fast. A military disaster is already unfolding but it is gradual, there are no headlines (yet?) saying “TODAY WE LOST”. A large military operation in the Gulf involving thousands of troops could well be that moment. Geography, logistics, fighting spirit, and for once possibly even technology, all favor the Iranians. Drones, missiles, mines. Lack of air defense. Shore versus ship. Improvisation and lack of detailed planning. An American command structure without real experience in modern warfare. It all adds up. Hegseth’s 10,000 targets as the modern version of MacNamara’s body counts.

The coming days or weeks could deliver this new Tet moment. A failed operation. A strategic miscalculation that exposes limits. An outcome that cannot be spun. In a hyper-connected age, the perception shift would be instantaneous. The already threadbare myth of omnipotence would fracture not over months of coverage, but in hours of viral footage.

If January 30, 1968 marked the peak before the long decline of American unquestioned authority, then the Gulf today may be where that curve bends again. Not because America is now weak, but it is unquestionably weaker. And the world has changed, adversaries have learned and adapted. The question isn’t whether the U.S. can win a battle, the coming operations might even initially be successful, it’s whether the American psyche can absorb a strategic setback without overreacting.

We may be days or weeks from that pivot. Not a surprise, but a culmination. Tet didn’t create the American crisis in Vietnam; it revealed it. The Gulf’s Tet will fully reveal the limits of the old America-centric world order. And when that moment comes, it remains to be seen whether America can face the new reality without losing its bearings.

March 27, 2026 Posted by | Militarism | , | Comments Off on The coming military and psychological unravelling?

Iran has the last laugh

By M. K. BHADRAKUMAR | Indian Punchline | March 27, 2026

Wars are always unpredictable. The most famous instance is of another armada like the US’ in the Persian Gulf at the moment — the Spanish Armada, a 130-ship naval fleet sent by Spain in 1588 commanded by Alonso de Guzmán, Duke of Medina Sidonia, an aristocrat appointed by Philip II of Spain to invade England, depose Queen Elizabeth I, and restore Catholicism.

Despite its strength, the Spanish Armada was defeated in the English Channel by a smaller English force using fireships and better artillery, then largely destroyed by storms while retreating around Scotland and Ireland.

The US president Donald Trump’s much-touted armada has more or less the same mission as the Spanish Armada — ranging from regime change to  overthrow of the Islamic system of governance to the unspoken leitmotif of a Crusade. Curiously, it seems destined for a similar miserable ending too, the US’ overwhelming military superiority notwithstanding.

Sir Alexander William Younger KCMGUS, former head of MI6, said in an interview with the Economist on Monday that Iran has gained the “upper hand” in the ongoing war with the United States and Iran.  Sir Alexander complimented Iran.

More than one factor contributed to this “paradigm shift” of the Big Boy coming out second best. Bad planning, lack of a coherent strategy,  over-confidence over the US’ apparent military superiority– all these played their part in the undoing of the plot against Iran that the two aggressors hatched.

It is now out in the open that, incredibly enough, just 16 days into the war, the US forces were already running out of ATACMS/PrSM ground-attack missiles; and, Israel is about to expend its entire Arrow interceptor missiles by the end March. 

The Royal United Services Institute in London published on March 24 an analysis/expert opinion highlighting that the war in Iran has virtually hollowed out the inventory of the US and Israel’s “most critical assets” with no prospects of replenishment anytime soon in a near future due to the fragilities of the US defence industrial base. 

The findings are a stark warning that with the conflict having “settled into a grinding trial of attrition” after the first 96 hours, the inventories of long-range interceptors and precision strike weapons are nearing exhaustion. 

The CEO of Rheinmetall, Armin Papperger warned on 19 March that global stockpiles are “empty or nearly empty” and if the war continues another month, “we nearly have no missiles available”.

To be sure, Iranians are watching closely and that explains their defiant stance that “Iran will end the war when it decides to do so and when its conditions are met.” Tehran has warned that it will continue to deal “heavy blows” across the Middle East. Media reports confirm Iran’s claim that it has rendered dysfunctional the US bases all across the region. Had it not been about a war, there is cause for celebration when the notorious bully gets thrashed by a little brother.

Word is spreading in the US despite the cover-up by the administration that “The U.S. war in Iran is taking a mounting toll on America’s military, with rising casualties, dwindling munitions stockpiles, a sidelined aircraft carrier and numerous downed aircraft just three weeks into the conflict, ” to quote from The Hill, an influential newspaper that circulates among lawmakers in the US Congress.

The report adds, “At least 13 U.S. service members have been killed, while another 232 have been injured since the U.S.-Israeli war against Tehran began on Feb. 28. In addition, some 16 American aircraft have been destroyed, the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier was damaged in a laundry room fire earlier this month and American forces are quickly blowing through stocks of air defence and long-range munitions.”

The commentary carried by RUSI says that Iran has damaged at least a dozen US and allied radars and satellite terminals, which has impacted the efficiency of interception. Evidently, using 10 or 11 interceptors for one Iranian missile or 8 patriot missiles for one Iranian drone becomes unsustainable going ahead. It underscored that the US military is “approximately a month, or less, away from running out of ATACMS/PrSM ground-attack missiles and THAAD interceptors. And Israel is in an even more precarious spot, with its Arrow interceptor missiles likely to be completely expended by the end of March.”

In real terms, this implies accepting greater risk for aircraft and tolerating more Iranian missiles and drones damaging US-Israeli forces and infrastructure. The audacious Iranian attacks this week on Dimona, Israel’s nuclear city, is a vivid example. 

“The precariousness … could possibly explain why President Trump is already suggesting the ‘winding down’ of the Iran war; it could take years to replace what was expended in only 16 days,” the commentary points out. Given the limitations of the US defence industrial base, “it will likely take at least 5 years to replenish the 500 plus Tomahawk missiles already fired in the war. 

“Worse, sourcing critical defence minerals, rare earths, and materials to make the weapons and munitions is complicated by China. China controls most of the world’s gallium and germanium, and Beijing has imposed numerous mineral export controls since 2023, to prevent the US and its allies from acquiring these necessary inputs for the defence industrial base.”

The “strategic consequence” of all this is that continued fighting with Iran not only increases the risk to forces in-theatre but engenders the bigger risk of what it does to deterrence and defence elsewhere, such as “protecting Taiwan and supporting Ukraine”. 

Besides, if the US prioritises replenishing its own stocks, it slows deliveries to other partners. Allies are already signalling concern that “an American focus on its own military replenishment will delay weapon and munition deliveries they have already paid for.”

The reigning superpower that was Spain in the 16th century saw its power crumble after the defeat of the Armada, while England would soon control an empire that the sun never set on. Is history repeating on a similar template in our world in transition?

March 27, 2026 Posted by | Militarism | , , , , , | Comments Off on Iran has the last laugh

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